A Legacy of Memories
by Real Vampires Glitter
Summary: It was the one thing that could salvage the torn relationship between brothers, weave a bond between father and son, and heal the pain within a young boy’s heart. InuYasha relieves his mother’s life through her diary, from the meeting of his father to the


A Legacy of Memories

By Real Vampires Glitter

-Summary- It was the one thing that could salvage the torn relationship between brothers, weave a bond between father and son, and heal the pain within a young boy's heart. InuYasha relieves his mother's life through her diary, from the meeting of his father to their courtship, from an encounter with Sesshomaru's mother to the couple's forbidden union, all the way to an end that came far too soon.

-Note- This takes place two years after Naraku's defeat! Yay! XD Kagome is out of high school, as well. Here are the character ages:

InuYasha: 21 (71 with the years he was spell-bound)

Kagome: 20

Sango: 21

Miroku: 22

Shippo: 12 (human years)

Sesshomaru: 26 (human years)

Rin: 15

A cool breeze drifted through the thick spring foliage, carrying the sweet promise of rain over the greens and browns of the woodland. The beating of strong wings frightened a small school of minnow as a heron landed amongst the water plants. A small grove of trees grew nearby; lush, emerald green, and deeply rooted into the fertile earth.

The branches of a great oak sheltered a small grave, protecting the simple stone marker from the cool rains that frequently came. Age had been kind to the dark grey rock, having left the crudely cut effigy as clear as it had been the day it was cut sixty-seven years ago today. The blood stains also remained, the same stains that came from the tiny hands that worked so hard to make sure that his mother wasn't forgotten.

Misty amber eyes looked over his mother's memorial as scarred hands placed a bouquet of freshly cut water lilies on the grave. InuYasha smiled warmly as he inhaled the scent of water lilies and the rain that came on a western breeze. His mother had always cut water lilies before it rained, she said they stayed fresher longer. Her hands would stay stained green for weeks afterward, keeping the scent of the flowers and the elements with her. InuYasha loved it when it combined with the special fragrance of maternity that warmed him to the core.

She died on his tenth birthday. Suddenly, with no pain, no complaints, no expression or sign of impending loss on her beautiful face. She had thrown him the best celebration she could with their forest resources in their simple home, but when she laid down for a nap, she just…Didn't wake up.

Now it was his twenty-first birthday, seventy-first to be exact. So much had happened since he was seven; he found friends, a family, and a love to last a lifetime. Over the course of the past few years his temper had died down, and he had become a loving friend. Though his patience still ran thin with Miroku at least twice a week. He wasn't alone anymore…That was one thing he never had to worry about again. He was going to be a father, Kagome had given him the news just two weeks ago. But unlike his father, he was going to be there for his children, and he wasn't going to let Kagome live and die alone.

He placed a kiss on the stone and stood to leave. InuYasha sighed and looked up to the sky just when the first few drops of rain began to fall. The silver haired half-demon leapt through the thick forest towards the small hut that had been his childhood home.

Sango and Miroku lived nearby with their daughter Midoriko and Kirara's four kittens. They had a nice income, from Miroku's holy services and Sango's demon slaying. Demon attacks had lessened since Naraku's defeat, but there was always the small infestation of rat or frog demons. Midoriko was a lovely child with her mothers strong features and her father's deep blue eyes. She had a temper when it came to people, but she adored animals and often curled up with Kirara for her daily nap.

When Kagome was in her world for checkups or couldn't make it because morning sickness kept her in bed, she was in the Feudal Era with InuYasha. After Naraku's downfall, they feared that Kagome wouldn't be able to return. But the growing child in her womb gave her the link to keep coming back, and would allow her to return for years to come.

"Oh, InuYasha you're back!"

InuYasha looked up and saw Sango coming down the well beaten path between their houses carrying a basket of fish and vegetables with Midoriko at her side and an umbrella over them.

"Unca Inuwasha! Happy buthday!" Midoriko called, waddling towards him with a fistful of grass and what smelled like catnip, roots and clumps of dirt included.

InuYasha chuckled and reached for the child's gift. "Thank you, Midoriko." The half demon gently tousled the girl's thick chocolate brown hair, causing her to squeal in delight. "I'm going to keep these in the pretty vase you made me last year."

He lead them into the hut before the rain broke the forest canopy. It suited Kagome and his needs perfectly, but with a little one on the way, the couple had been making plans to enlarge the home starting when they found out what the child was going to be.

"Has Myoga come to see you yet?" Sango asked, sipping her tea as InuYasha assisted Midoriko in arranged his birthday bouquet in the small vase.

"No…Was he supposed to?" InuYasha looked up from his chore to the young mother across the room.

"Yes…He has something of your mother's."

Kirara peeped around the corner as if on cue, a tiny black speck leaping from her head to InuYasha's face. "Master InuYasha! Happy birthday!" Myoga cheered as he pierced the flesh of InuYasha's nose and drunk deeply.

Smack!

"Myoga, you would think after years of getting popped like that you would stop." Kagome laughed, entering the small hut with a bag of gifts and shaking off her umbrella.

"Aunt Me-Me!" Midoriko squealed, gently embracing Kagome's swollen abdomen. Sango quickly stepped forward to pull her daughter away. "Midoriko, be careful! There's a baby in there!"

Kagome laughed and sat the bag down. "It's ok, Sango. Our little man is tough." She smiled brightly and gave a sparkling glance at InuYasha.

InuYasha caught her eye, his jaw hanging open. "L-little m-man? Th-the baby is a boy?" Kagome nodded, smiling and tearing up. "Yes, InuYasha! We're going to have a son!"

InuYasha threw his arms around Kagome, instinctively avoiding her belly. He placed kisses from her nose, to her lips, along her jaw line, and cried with her.

"Master, I think this would be a good time for me to present you with your gift." Myoga said, taking his place on the half demon's shoulder

"Oh yeah, Sango said you have something of my mother's." InuYasha helped Kagome into a chair while he sat on a mat between her and Sango.

"That I do. Kirara, could you bring it in, please?" Myoga called.

The demon feline trotted inside, a cloth wrapped rectangle in her mouth. She dropped it in InuYasha's lap, then curled up beside Midoriko.

"Myoga, what is this?" InuYasha asked, turning the parcel in his hands.

"That, my lord, is your mother's diary."

InuYasha looked up at Myoga. "Her diary?"

The old flea nodded. "Lady Izayoi hoped that when the time came for you to be a father, you could look back and see just what a wonderful man your own father was."

InuYasha had never knew his father, and he didn't particularly care to know. As far as he was concerned, he had left his mother alone in a world that was so hard for her to live in because of who she had loved. Because of him, both he and his mother had been the victims of prejudice and racism.

InuYasha closed his eyes…He could remember the hateful jeers and taunts the other lords and ladies threw at him.

"_Demon brat!"_

"_Devil spawn!"_

"_Mutt!"_

"_Filthy half-breed!"_

He had gotten used to the hurtful words, but the poisonous words thrown at his mother were so much worse.

"_The whore of a demon!"_

"_You should have stayed within your own race!"_

"_Your child should die as punishment for you crimes!"_

She never shed a tear. Even when they retired to their quarters and found them destroyed, she just calmly cleaned a space for InuYasha to sleep, then began to clean things up. When her kimono were vandalized, she would just sigh and smile then take off the one she wore and wear her yukata in it's place.

The first incident InuYasha remembered of her shedding tears was when a group of lords were playing with a ball in the courtyard. InuYasha was young, and the bright red ball caught his childish fancy. When he asked to play, the lord sneered.

"Heh, sure. Fetch!" He threw the ball across the courtyard over bridge, then stood and waited for InuYasha's reaction.

Being the child he was, InuYasha chased the ball over the bridge. When he turned, and there was no one there but his mother, he was utterly confused. He looked up into his mother's beautiful face, and saw the shimmering tears in her eyes. She knelt down and wrapped him in her warm embrace, and cried silently.

When he was seven, his mother drew the line, and left the castle with him in the night. Three of the lords had set up a trail of sweets that led into the forest. At the end of the trail was a snare that snatched InuYasha up and held him upside down. The lords cut him down, and cut sections from his little ears to mark him like the wild boar in the area. They left him in the woods bleeding and crying until nightfall when his mother finally found him after hours of searching. The lord claimed to have taken him "hunting", and Izayoi began her frantic search only to discover that her son had been the one hunted.

InuYasha shook the memories off and started down at the aged book. On the cover in his mother's lost , elegant script was her name and age.

"Seventeen? She was seventeen when she met the old man?" InuYasha asked.

"When she met your father, and much more." Myoga answered, leaping down to the yellowed pages. "This is your mother's legacy in your hands. Share it with whom you will." The old flea leapt onto Kirara's back, and the feline demon arouse from her mini-nap and wandered out the door.

Sango smiled and took Midoriko's hand. "I think this should be shared with Kagome. If you need us, you know where we are."

Midoriko hugged and kissed them both, and left with her mother. Kagome looked down at InuYasha, who held the journal in awe. "InuYasha, do you want to be left alone?"

The half demon shook his head. "No…I want you to stay with me and share this with me. I think we can both get to know my mother a little better from this."

Kagome smiled warmly, and carefully maneuvered her body down next to InuYasha's as he opened the journal to the first page.

"Spring, Month five, day twelve…" InuYasha looked up at Kagome. "She started this on her seventeenth birthday." He turned his golden eyes back to the page and read on. "This is the first entry of many, the first part of the legacy I plan on leaving within these pages…."

END: Yes, yes I know, it sucked, lol. The chapters from this point on will be in Izayoi's point of view, with switchbacks to InuYasha and Kagome every now and then. Please review and let me know what you guy's think!!


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